In modern food production, meats of various types are prepackaged, labeled, and offered for sale to consumers. This offers convenience to consumers, allowing them to survey packages of meats and see the cuts, the weights, and the prices without requiring assistance. For many consumers this is preferable to asking for assistance, specifying what is desired, and waiting for completion service. The prepackaging of meats is also monetarily more efficient as well. It is generally preferred to buy prepackaged meat for convenience and price.
Prepackaging of meats leads to many efficiencies. Many of these efficiencies result from the disassembly line production of the meat packages. Among the steps in producing these packages are the final steps of weighing and labeling the packages. Among the important information provided by a label are the weight, cut of meat, and the actual price of each package of meat. Meat is generally priced by the quantity of meat in the package. However, the price per unit weight of meat is dependent upon the type of meat and the specific cut of meat in the package. For example, for poultry, the price per unit weight of poultry thigh will be different from the price per unit weight of poultry wing. With regard to beef, the price per unit weight will vary between sirloins, tenderloins, briskets, roasts, etc. Additionally, it has become more desirable to be able to identify the source of the meat purchased by the customer. This may be for health reasons, i.e. to track illness outbreaks to the source. It may also be for consumer preferences, i.e. to identify a source as an organic producer, etc.
Hence, it is very important that label provide the relevant information which may include the type of meat, the cut, the weight, the price, and sometimes the source. However, it is the nature of the disassembly line that the various steps in the process occur at different locations. Sometimes these locations are far removed from each other. Additionally, the knowledge possessed by persons working at different locations in the process may not encompass the knowledge possessed at other locations. This means that it is highly desirable to be able to automatically track the type of meat and cuts arriving at weighing and labeling locations toward the end of the process.